Belling

An appeal from a judgment denying the right of appellant to recover commissions and special damages.

Respondent, who was the owner of certain real property in the city of Stockton, signed and delivered to appellant, a real estate broker, a memorandum in writing in terms authorizing the latter to effect an exchange thereof for property of like character in the city of Oakland. Both properties were described in the memorandum, which further provided for the payment to appellant of a commission in the sum of $1,000.

The major portion of the building upon the Oakland property was then being used for hotel purposes, the lower floor thereof being divided into two storerooms. The memorandum contained the following provisions, the effect of which is here in question: “It is hereby understood and agreed that there exists a lease on said hotel extending over a period of seven (7) years from July, 1922, for a monthly rental of $700, secured by a chattel mortgage on furniture. . . . This agreement shall not be binding upon the undersigned until he has inspected and approved said leases’’-—the leases referred to being that of the hotel, a lease of one of the storerooms then in force, and a…